TAJIKISTAN'S FARKHAR DISTRICT STRUGGLES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000566

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV ECON EAGR SOCI TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN'S FARKHAR DISTRICT STRUGGLES


DUSHANBE 00000566 001.2 OF 003


1.SUMMARY: Low cotton harvests the past few years are taking a
toll on Tajikistan's southwestern Farkhar district.
Transportation routes are poor throughout the province,
electricity is scarce, and running water is only available in a
few towns. Official trade with Afghanistan across the Pyanzh
River is nonexistent because there is no bridge. President
Rahmonov appointed a new Hukumat (district government) Chairman
earlier this year to help "teach the people" to succeed in the
post-privatization environment. But mounting debts to cotton
futures companies, inherited land debt, insects, and an outdated
irrigation network present huge obstacles for this poor
district. END SUMMARY

THE ROAD TO FARKHAR


2. Farkhar district sits 220 km southwest of Dushanbe in the
Khatlon region, separated from Afghanistan by the meandering
Pyanzh River. The road to Farkhar from Dushanbe travels through
the President's hometown of Dangara, meaning the road is in
relatively good shape except for the winding and precarious
portion through the Shar-Shar pass (often shut during winter.)
When the $18 million 2.2 km Shar-Shar tunnel being built by the
Chinese is complete, it will take 40 minutes off traversing this
pass. The road for from Dangara to Gulistan is exceptionally
smooth for Tajikistan, thanks to government upgrades in 2004 in
preparation for the (subsequently postponed) celebration of
Kulob city's 2,700th anniversary. After Gulistan, the main
route turns into a poorly paved potholed road. South of the
main city of Farkhar, the roads are mostly unpaved; leading to
the Kokul border crossing, where the "roads" are nothing more
than dry riverbeds. PolOffs' all-terrain vehicle had a hard
enough time traveling this route; it is difficult to imagine
transport trucks ferrying goods to the border crossing,
especially in inclement weather.

COTTON: FARKHAR'S PRIMARY ECONOMY


3. Farkhar is among Tajikistan's oldest agrarian districts,
with approximately 26,000 hectares of farmland. Around 4,000
hectares are naturally arable and used to grow wheat, but the
yield is not high. The remaining 22,000 hectares are irrigated;
12,000 hectares for cotton and 8,000 for grain and fodder. Some
land is used for vegetables and melons. Farkhar has not reached
the state-issued cotton target for the past fifteen years (for
which there is no monetary penalty),and was at 53 percent of
the 2005 target. However, cotton remains the mainstay of the
district's economy. One hectare of cotton gives 10-12 people
work, while one hectare of grain requires only one person's
labor.


4. Aggressive pests, water shortages, and land debts keep
Farkhar farmers on the edge of poverty. Last year, during early
summer, several very cold days impeded critical cotton growth,
and the exceptionally hot mid- to late-summer weather encouraged
insect infestation. Farmers cannot afford pesticides or the
required year to let land go fallow to fix pest infestation.
The Pyanzh flooded in late summer and washed away the irrigation
canal that feeds Farkhar district. The government has put a
high priority on fixing the irrigation canal by the Chubeck dam
that supplies water to several districts from the Pyanzh River
before this summer. Farmland in Farkhar does not appear to
suffer from over-salinization, a problem often associated with
irrigation.


5. Large amounts of land debt hang over Farkhar's farmers.
Current land tax debt stands at approximately 2.5 million somoni
($776,398). Additionally, farmers owe around $15 million to
agricultural "futures" companies, $8 million to a single
futures company, run by the "Zamin" business conglomerate. The
company is owned by KhatlonZamin Association, formed in 1989 by
Faizali Hakimov and currently run by his brother Mahmadali
Hakimov.

NEW FARKHAR GOVERNOR: I'M HERE TO TEACH THE PEOPLE


DUSHANBE 00000566 002.2 OF 003



6. In a March 23 meeting with visiting PolOffs, the new Hukumat
Chairman Ghulom Boyakov said he was sent to Farkhar two months
ago by President Rahmonov to help the people "change their
priorities" from the state providing everything, to individual
initiative. Boyakov said in the past, all resources were
delivered from the government, but this is not the case now.
His goal is to help them work in this new farming environment,
although Boyakov noted that the results of privatization of
processing enterprises and state and collective farms are "not
yet positive." As for combating corruption, the Chairman said
that from his perspective he does not feel that corruption is so
obvious, and he took pains to tell PolOffs that he had "already
made his own wealth." (COMMENT: This likely was a reference to
his position as head of the cotton board in the mid 1990's. END
COMMENT.) Boyakov conceded, however, that it would be important
to make sure that corruption does not exist in tax and land
inspections, and other law enforcement activities.

A VERY POOR DISTRICT


7. The poverty in Farkhar district is stark. The main town
(also named Farkhar) is as good as it gets, with some buildings
hooked up to a sludge-like water supply that both looks and
smells unappealing. Wealthier residents collect rainwater in
large elevated tanks and use gravity to pump it into the house.
Electricity to the main Hukumat building, hospital, and ginning
companies is provided for one to two hours in the morning and
for two hours in the evening; the power is sent from Sarband, a
small hydropower station downstream of Nurek. The town has a
network of cement drainage ditches that had a fetid smell even
in the mild weather of late March. A silkworm home industry
supplements incomes. Trees other than fruit trees and mulberry
trees, used to feed silkworms, are cut for firewood to heat
homes and are not replanted.


8. Traveling the road outside of the main town provides an even
starker picture. The nicer villages had one or two communal
water pumps, although these were few and far between. The
majority of dwellings were rudimentary mud brick buildings.
Farkhar has a population of 127,000 with an unemployment rate of
40 percent - but this rate is relatively low because the
majority of young working-age people have left the district for
Dushanbe or abroad (about 5-6,000 residents are working in
Russia.) Officially, there are 2,000 people registered as
unemployed in Farkhar district. Little official trade with
Afghanistan takes place, according to the Hukumat Chairman,
because there is no bridge over the Pyanzh. Many of the
quarter-century old irrigation systems are in disrepair and the
drainage systems are blocked with dirt.


9. COMMENT: A decrease in cotton harvest yields and the flood
last year have significantly increased hardships in Farkhar
province. The new Hukumat Chairman clearly was brought in to
fix some issues, but without additional government funds or
investment projects he cannot do much. For example, when
PolOffs were in his office he received a noncommittal return
phone call from the Energy Ministry regarding his request for
additional electricity. Moreover, with farmers' mounting debts
to futures companies and no guarantee of future bumper harvests,
it is hard to see how keeping cotton the primary crop will help
farmers break even, let alone elevate living standards. The
federal government is probably the only entity in a position to
fix the irrigation canals leading to Farkhar to water the cotton
plantings this summer. Without that assistance, next year will
be even more difficult. END COMMENT.


10. BIO NOTE: Prior to being appointed the Farkhar Hukumat
Chairman in early 2006, Ghulom Boyakov had been reelected to
Parliament and a member of the Economy, Budget, Finance, and
Taxes Committee. Boyakov does not speak English, was sharply
dressed, and declined to talk about any Dushanbe political
matters with PolOffs, claiming he was "really an economist." In
1976, Boyakov graduated from the Tajik Polytechnical University
with a degree in electrical engineering. He was an engineer at
the cotton gin in Farkhar district in 1974; instructor at the

DUSHANBE 00000566 003.2 OF 003


communist party committee in Farkhar 1980-88; head of the
Department at Provincial Communist Party Committee 1988-91;
deputy chairman and then chairman of the Committee of the
Peoples deputies 1992-94; head of the cotton industry
"Khlopokprom" of Tajikistan from 1994-97; and chairman of the
Cotton Corporation "Pakhtai tojik" from 1997-99. Prior to being
elected to Parliament for the first time in 2000, he worked as
the chairman of "Cotton Service" company. Boyakov was born on 1
May 1950 in the Farkhar district and is married with 6 children.
His son Davlat studied English in Nebraska for 3 months in the
late 1990's and is now head of his father's Ziyoratsho cotton
ginning company in Farkhar.
HOAGLAND